Molecular biology is reaching new depths in our understanding of the development and
physiology of Malpighian tubules. In Diptera, Malpighian tubules derive from ectodermal
cells that evaginate from the primitive hindgut and subsequently undergo a sequence of
orderly events that culminates in an active excretory organ by the time the larva takes its first
meal. Thereafter, the tubules enlarge by cell growth. Just as modern experimental strategies
have illuminated the development of tubules, genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic …